Zayn Malik has given his first in-depth interview since quitting One Direction.

Zayn caused a storm when he pulled a Robbie Williams and left the band earlier this year, which resulted in Twitter spats with his former bandmate Louis Tomlinson and alienated him from the rest of the group. It seemed to be out of the blue, like something had triggered him giving up on the biggest boyband in the world, but it turns out it was always in his mind.

He told Fader magazine: ‘I guess I just wanted to go home from the beginning. I was always thinking it. I just didn’t know when I was going to do it. Then by the time I decided to go, it just felt right on that day.’

The singer went on to reveal that although it had always been on the cards, the day he actually decided to go ahead with it something had just snapped in him.

‘I woke up on that morning, if I’m being completely honest with you, and was like, “I need to go home. I just need to be me now, because I’ve had enough.” I was with my little cousin at the time—we were sat in the hotel room—and I was just, “Should I go home?” And he was like, “If you want to go home, let’s go home.” So we left.’

Since then he’s barely had any contact with Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Liam Payne, apart from a public row with Louis after he started beef with Zayn’s new pal Naughty Boy.

@Louis_Tomlinson remember when you had a life and stopped making bitchy comments about mine ?

But he’s broken his silence with the boys, having made contact with Liam for the first time since he quit.

He said: ‘I spoke to Liam about two weeks ago. It was the first time I’d spoken to him since I left the band, and I rung him, and he wanted to talk.

‘He said that he didn’t understand it at the time, but he now fully gets why I had to do what I did. He understands that it’s my thing, that I had to do that, and that basically he wants to meet up and sit down and have a good chat in person, and he wants to do some music and work on some stuff aside from being in the band, which we always wanted to do anyway.’

Great news they’re getting things back on track, especially after Zayn said 1D’s music is too uncool for him. Perhaps a reunion in a few years isn’t totally off the cards.